This sentence from Rimbaud’s To a Reason hung from a wall in singer/guitarist Kate Clover’s Los Angeles studio apartment. She would read the words out loud every morning. It became her mantra. It symbolized her new beginning, her beacon towards finding her new way. Clover made a pact to be ruthlessly true to herself, however difficult or painful. Which meant to no longer be part of a duo- she wanted her voice to be heard, but this time alone.

Days spent in the wilderness of doubt searching for something new, Clover was waiting for a creative spark to set her new path ablaze. On a midnight drive through LA, Suicide’s Ghost Rider streamed into her car from a left-of-the-dial station. She drove home and immediately wrote “Under Your Spell”. With pulsing synths, raw guitars and buzzing bass lines, the sonic structure for Total Devotion came to life. PJ Harvey, Let Love In era Nick Cave and Black Sabbath, were also leading influences that help shape the EP’s juxtaposing sound. French Surrealist Poets, Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud served as lyrical touchstones. Clover played every instrument on the EP (except drums), which reinforced her new found spark and empowered her to be fearless. When it came time to assemble a live band Clover knew it had to be all female, an aspect she felt she had overlooked in the past as being the sole female member. A symbolic change, that marks a new era for the project with hopes of inspiring other females to pursue what they believe in. The beauty of tearing things up and starting again is the freedom of letting go, and in that process of elimination you are able to see yourself clearly and that’s what Total Devotion is all about. Total Devotion is the follow up to her 2016 debut EP Out of the Blue produced by Alain Johannes (PJ Harvey, Mark Lanegan, QOTSA).